Surface mount technology is a technology for mounting electrical and electronic components to a printed circuit board. In many cases, the electronic components that are mounted on the printed circuit board are arranged in packages having conductive pins. The package is often in the form of a housing in which digital electronic devices, processors, transistors, and groups of analog devices are contained. In other cases, the package includes a frame that is both a support for, and part of the device itself.
The surface mount process includes placing component packages on predetermined locations on the printed circuit board such that the conductive pins contact predetermined traces on the printed circuit board. The board then undergoes a soldering process, such as an infrared reflow (IR) process, which distributes solder to electrically and physically connect pins of the packages onto conductors on the printed circuit board at the predetermined locations.
A dual in-line surface mount package is a form of surface mount package that includes a case or frame and two rows of surface mount pins or leads. The case of such a device can contain a chip, passive electrical components and/or RF components, among things. For larger analog devices, such as a transformer or choke, the frame can act both as a bobbin around which coils are wrapped, and as a frame or support for the core element and the surface mount pins. One example of such a device is the 53xxx Series SMT current sense transformer available from Murata Power Solutions of Kyoto, Japan. The coil ends are typically electrically connected to respective surface mount pins, to allow circuit connection through the devices. The pins, in turn, are soldered to conductive traces on the printed circuit board as discussed above.
Such devices are known, but can have issues during circuit board assembly that lead to unreliability. Other known devices require manufacturing steps that can lead to damage, or are otherwise complex and costly.